e governor convened for the trials--the Court of Oyer and Terminer which held its first trial in June--was already in action but the momentum had already been built up. By the time the Court was dissolved on October 15, several hundred were accused of witchcraft about 150 were formally charged and imprisoned and 19 were executed (Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1972, 31).
There are probably several reasons for this display of hysteria. Smelser says hysteria is that "which transforms an ambiguous situation into an absolutely potent, generalized threat" (Smelser 83). This seems to have occurred in Salem. At first it was not considered a case of witchcraft. And, while the focus was on the girls, it was the adults who lead the way. "The adults," says Boyer, determined not only the direction the witchcraft accusations would take; it was they it seems who first concluded that witchcraft was even in the picture at all" (Boyer and Niss
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